The document discusses opportunities in the BPO sector in Colombia. It notes that sectors like finance, energy, healthcare, and oil and gas are increasingly demanding more back office and call center services. Colombia has a large pool of skilled labor from its universities. The country has strategic infrastructure and a location that allows it to be a regional hub for outsourcing. Major companies like IBM, HP, and Genpact have opened facilities in Colombia, taking advantage of the business-friendly climate and skilled workforce.

1. INVESTMENT IN
BPO SECTOR
L iber
O rd e n

2. OPPORTUNITIES IN THE LOCAL INDUSTRY
The financial sector has been one of the most dynamic
sectors in mobile internet demand, based on a mass
bancarization dynamic sought by the government to
offer everyone the possibility to manage their finances
using mobile devices. This trend has created many
opportunities for the provision of back office and call
center services in the country.
Colombian energy generation, transport and
distribution companies, significant growth, and
current regional expansion processes, increasingly
demand more BPO and IT services
Due to the sustained expansion of the health sector
and the growing demand of the population (47 million
inhabitants), this sector requires increasing support
in mobile telecommunication services for remote
monitoring of patients (Telemedicine) and information
consolidation (Data Entry).
The Oil & Gas sectors demand more services
related to mobile telecommunications as well as
control and drilling, extraction, and oil transport
processes for their daily activities increase.
Qualified human capital availability, its strategic
and competitive geographical location with easy
access to world markets, and location in the center
of 5 time zones, sharing time zone with important
business centers, have allowed Colombia to become a
distribution regional hub for outsourcing, software, and
IT services.
The National Government is currently carrying out
an ambitious plan, more than COP $90 trillion over
the next years, for the development of road, port,
railway, and airport infrastructure in the country,
that will require accounting, finance, and logistics
support services to control projects operation.

3. COLOMBIA, A MARKET THAT
DOUBLES THE GROWTH OF LATIN
AMERICAN MARKET
Source: ACDCC. Contact Center and
BPO Colombian Association, 2012.
BPO Industry in Colombia –Mayor Segments Served 2011
The BPO industry in Colombia has
created more than 130,000 jobs. Diario
Económico Portafolio, 2012
Companies such as Sutherland,
Teleperformance, and Convergys are
recognized for its bilingual operations ACDCC1,
2012.
The industry continues to grow at sustained levels: 13.58% between 2010 and
2011. ACDCC, 2012.
Exports value increased 125% over the
past five years, reaching US$141 Million
during 2011. ACDCC, 2012.
Transport and
Tourism 1%
Mass Consumption 2%
State 5%
Insurance 6%
Banking and
Financial
services 13%
Others 32%
Media 1%
Automotive Sector 1%
Telecomunications
39%
2014 IT Services and BPO companies
target markets in Colombia will focus
on Engineering Services, Research and
Development, IT Services and Value
Added BPO Services. Tholons, 2010.
For third consecutive year Colombia
was included in the “Top 30 destination
countries for Offshore Services” Report.
The report emphasizes the strengths of
the country as a location for call center
operations and transactional BPO jobs,
the proactive government support to
the IT sector and the competitive costs.
Gartner, 2013.

4. A GROWING MARKET WITH HIGH CAPACITY
OF SKILLED LABOR
44.352
Number of graduates in Engineering and Business Administration 2011
Number of graduates in business & engineering fields (2011)
11.919
4.601
5.101
7.065
8.751
1.167
TOTAL
GRADUATES
2001 - 2011
Source: Ministry of
Education 2011.
Electrical
Engineering
Electronics
Engineering
Economics
Industrial
Engineering
Computer
Engineering
Accounting
11.029
49.442
48.130
69.825
118.069
112.297
Business
399.225
Source: Observatorio Laboral (Employment Beacon)– Ministry of Education. 2012
• After Mexico, Colombia with 47.1
million inhabitants is the second
largest Spanish-speaking country
in the world. It has multiple areas
of development: nine metropolitan
areas with population over
500,000 inhabitants. DANE, 2012
• Colombia is the twenty-eighth
largest economy in the world and
one of the largest Non-OECD
economies.
• The country has the second
fastest growing labor force in the
region. IMD, 2012.
• Colombia is the third Latin
American country with the
highest number of graduates
in the areas of Business and
Engineering. Euromonitor,
2012.
• Each year more than 200
thousand people graduate from
higher education in Colombia:
55% undergraduate and 30%
in Masters and Specialization
degrees. Observatorio Laboral Ministry of National Education,
2012.

5. Infrastructure, attractive costs savings and a privileged location
Prime strategic location: Located in the heartland
of the main commercial and financial centers of the
hemisphere; shares cultural-affinity-patterns suitable
to consolidate operations in the region.
Infrastructure capable of supporting world-class
operations: 5 submarine cables, supplemented by
an internal optical fiber ring that will connect 1,078
municipalities in 2014. MinTIC ( Ministry of Information
and Communications Technologies) , 2013.
New Markets Opening
Continuous strengthening of commercial relations
between Colombia and the world, opening a window
of opportunities for investment in all business
outsourcing services.
Attractive regulatory framework
Available tools to enable operations in areas such as services exports
(Plan Vallejo), intellectual property rights, Statutory Law of Habeas Data,
value added tax (“VAT”) exemption for services provided from Colombia,
possibility of applying to the free trade zones regime, First Job Law and
opportunities to benefit from Telework.
Telecommunication Infrastructure of Submarine Cables
CFX - 1
MAYA - 1
SAM - 1
S
ARCOS
-AM
PAN
IN PROCESS
Vive Digital
Government plan aimed at generate economic growth
based on the use and appropriation of ICT in Colombia
and the development of a national digital ecosystem. The
Presidency of the Republic and the MinTIC (Ministry of
Information Technologies and Communications) lead the
plan. In terms of connectivity, by 2014 it is expected to have
1,078 municipalities online out of 1,100 in the country.
AMX - 1
PCC
Government’s commitment with the sector
The Government is committed to support and provide aid
through the Productive Transformation Program – PTP – a
strategy aimed at promote sector growth; in recent years the
program has created a favorable environment to consolidate
sector worldwide recognition. Program efforts develop
throughout four main themes: Human Capital and Regulatory
Framework, Consolidation, Promotion and Sector Innovation
and Infrastructure and Sustainability.
GLOBENET
Source: MinTic, 2013.

6. COLOMBIA, A COUNTRY WITH MULTIPLE
AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT
Bogota
Cali
• Voice BPO: Telemarketing –
Collections – Sales – Customer
Service
• Back Office: Outsourcing
of Financial and Accounting
Services – Human Resources
• KPO: Outsourcing Engineering
Services – Telemedicine – R+D+I
– Graphic Design –Legal Services
– Medical Transcriptions
• Voice BPO: Services – Collections
• Back Office: - Outsourcing of
Financial and Accounting Services
• KPO: - Healthcare –
Pharmaceutical – Aerospace
Medellin
• Voice BPO: Telemarketing –
Collections – Sales – Customer
Service
• Back Office: Outsourcing
of Financial and Accounting
Services – Human Resources
– Document Management
Services– 2nd Tier Help Desk
• KPO: Business Intelligence
Services
Tunja - Santa Marta – Ibague – Neiva
Popayan - Cucuta
• Voice BPO
Barranquilla
• Voice BPO: Call Centers Outsourcing of Financial and
Accounting Services
• KPO: Outsourcing of Engineering
Services
Bucaramanga
• Voice BPO
• KPO: Telemedicine - Outsourcing of
Engineering Services
Eje cafetero
• Voice BPO: Basic Voice Services
(Manizales) – Telesales (Pereira)
• Back Office (Pereira)
• KPO: Biodiversity (Center for
Bioinformatics and Computational
Biology Colombia – Manizales)

7. MAJOR FOREIGN COMPANIES
HAVE CHOSEN COLOMBIA AS AN
INVESTMENT DESTINATION
• IBM, USA: Opened a new center aimed at systems
integration, process outsourcing and support services.
• Genpact, India: Value-added operations service center
specialized in financial and accounting areas for the region.
• HP, USA: Opened a new global service center in the city of
Medellin.
• Convergys, USA: Customer Center Facility to service the
United States
“Colombia offers a favorable business climate for Genpact and for our clients – a rich talent pool with a high
literacy rate and complementary skill sets, a healthy and growing economy, a number of universities with strong
business curricula, a diverse array of industries, and open trade practices. Genpact is honored to establish its
roots here in Colombia and become a part of its culture and thriving business community.”
Pramod Bhasin, Non-Executive Vice Chairman
Genpact